Characteristics and examples of explanatory text – In Indonesian class 8 lessons, it will definitely be explained what an explanatory text is. Yes, it turns out that this lesson will also be studied again in grade 11.
So when Sinaumed’s has entered the 11th grade, then it’s time to recall the material that was given before.
If you want to learn more, Sinaumed’s can also read sinaumedia’s book entitled Indonesian Class VIII or get it via the link below.
In short, an explanatory text is a text that explains the process of something happening, for example, a text about the process of a flood. So, to understand more about the characteristics and examples of explanatory text, see the following article until it’s finished.
As mentioned above, explanatory text is a text that explains the process of something happening. More precisely, an explanatory text is a text that contains answers to the questions ‘why’ and ‘how’ to the occurrence of natural, social, cultural, scientific, and other events.
All events around us, not only natural phenomena, of course, have their respective causes and effects. This causal relationship will then be explained through an explanatory text.
The main purpose of an explanatory text is to provide detailed and of course accurate information about the occurrence of a phenomenon or event. This detailed information will be explained according to the special structure of explanatory text.
This structure is the difference between explanatory text and other types of text, as well as making it easier for the reader to understand every detail of the information on the topic being discussed. Apart from that, you can also recognize it through the characteristics that only explanatory text has.
Features of Explanatory Text
If you find a long text, of course there must be characteristics to identify whether the text is an explanatory text or not. Because each text has its own type, so there are special characteristics to recognize it. The following are the characteristics of explanatory text.
1. Factual Information
The information contained in it is a fact or actually happened and is generally factual. That is, the incident is true, not fabricated, or written based on the author’s opinion.
2. Scientific
The things contained in the text relate to science and knowledge. So that the various objects discussed can be accounted for scientifically.
3. Is Informative
The content of the explanatory text is information that is informative in nature, which is to be conveyed to the readers. Not persuasive or trying to influence the reader.
4. Focus on General Things
The focus of the contents of the explanatory text is generic or general matters, such as floods, landslides, storms, tsunamis, earthquakes, rain or volcanic eruptions, not human participants. The explanatory text is also explained in easy-to-understand and detailed language.
5. Using Sequence Makers
In explanatory text, the sequence of events or sequence makers will be used. Like the use of the word first, second, third, fourth, and so on.
Explanatory Text Structure
In addition, this structure is also the difference between explanatory text and other types of text. The following is the structure of explanatory text.
1. General Statement
The first structure is a general statement. In this section, we will explain the general description of certain events or incidents that are intended to be discussed. The point is about the process of how a phenomenon can occur.
2. A series or series of explanations
The second structure is the sequence or series of events to be discussed. If the general description has been explained at the beginning, then you will get information about the causes of the incident and also the consequences of the incident in this section. The causes and effects of this can be described in a few paragraphs. This paragraph is also often referred to as a series of explanations.
3. Interpretation
The last structure is interpretation. In explanatory text, this last paragraph contains a review or conclusion of the entire text. Responses and statements related to the phenomena or events discussed can be placed in this closing paragraph.
These three structures must be considered when writing explanatory text. Because the three structures above must always be sequential. With paragraphs that are made coherently according to structure, it will make it easier for the reader to understand the events or phenomena discussed.
You will also find it easier to recognize the type of explanatory text anywhere by memorizing the structure used in the explanatory text.
Language Rules in Explanatory Text
Each particular type of text has different linguistic rules. This is adjusted to the needs of the reader and suitability with the contents of the writing. This language rule is also what makes readers enjoy writing in an easier way. So, here are some of the language features used in making explanatory texts:
- The first linguistic rule is the focus of explanatory text on general matters, such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, rain, storms, and others.
- Explanatory text uses many scientific terms or words. Examples include intensity, grade, temperature, molecule, particle, slab, magnitude, drainage, debut, sedimentation, capacity, degradation, and so on.
- Use more active verbs. Examples are seeping, rising, shifting, expanding, decreasing, moving, mixing, flowing, buzzing, thumping, shaking, making, floating, and so on.
- Use more time and causal conjunctions, such as before, after, after that, then, if, so, first, second, last.
- Keep using the passive voice. Examples include the words drawn, tidied up, avoided, cut, estimated, detained, torn apart, closed, opened, changed, and so on.
- It is informative, which means it is used to provide information to the reader regarding the theme being written.
Example of explanatory text
After studying the characteristics and examples of explanatory text, of course it will be easier if you make your own text. Therefore, in the following, some examples of explanatory text will be given.
1. Title: Flood
Floods are certainly a natural phenomenon that is familiar to the people of Indonesia. When the rainfall is so heavy, floods will pool everywhere. Especially in lowland areas that have few water catchments.
These floods are usually sourced from high-intensity rainfall with a long or long duration and in watersheds or watersheds. Even so, flooding can be caused by two things, namely because of nature and humans. Naturally, flooding is caused by erosion, river capacity, geophysical/physiographical influences, tidal influences, or land drainage.
In addition, some of the bad human behavior that causes flooding includes changes in land use, littering, densely populated settlements built on riverbanks, and damage to flood control buildings.
Causes of Floods
Floods can occur naturally due to changes in land use. For example, when erosion occurs, sedimentation enters the river, causing the river’s carrying capacity to decrease.
As a result, rainwater that is abundant and can no longer be accommodated by the river, will stagnate as a flood. Rainwater that falls to the ground will later become run-off on the ground. Then some of it will also seep into the ground, so flooding will also depend on soil conditions.
If a forest that has a very high catchment area is turned into a settlement, the absorption capacity will decrease. Forests that should be able to withstand a large enough surface runoff eventually become resistant to the flow of rainwater, because the houses are standing on it. Finally, the river flow rate also increased.
Flood Due to Social Factors
The cause of more flooding is caused by changes in land use. If a forest located in a river is converted into a residential area, the peak discharge of the river will also increase. The debit can increase from 6 to 20 times, depending on the type of forest and settlement.
Likewise with other changes, namely a significant increase in peak discharge. Such as deforestation, and also environmental degradation. This includes city development full of concrete, paved roads that ignore drainage, catchment areas, and also ignore the intensity of rainwater which can cause flooding.
Garbage that is often disposed of carelessly, especially in the watershed, also makes the river dirty and clogged with garbage. So if water is overflowing, then when water is overflowing, it will spill over into the streets and settlements around it, because the capacity of the river is reduced due to piles of garbage.
This happens a lot in densely populated areas around rivers. So that it greatly inhibits the flow and reduces the capacity of the river. Slum areas in Jakarta are one of the important phenomena that must be considered together.
Not only that, other social phenomena that can cause flooding should also be properly responded to, so that flooding can be prevented by the three heavy rains.
2. Title: Lightning
When it rains heavily, it is not uncommon for lightning accompanied by lightning to strike here and there. Yes, thunder, lightning and lightning are indeed natural phenomena that are often found when it rains.
Usually a black sky will be followed by flashes of light and a thunderous roar accompanied by heavy rain. The difference between the speed of light and time means that the two do not appear together.
The occurrence of lightning
Lightning appears when it rains because of a potential difference between the cloud and the earth or with other clouds. The charge on the cloud occurs because it continues to move regularly. Then as long as it moves, it will interact with other clouds. Therefore, the negative charge will gather on one side (top or bottom), while the positive charge on the other side.
Now, when the charge between the cloud and the earth is large enough, this is when the process of removing negative charge or electrons from the earth to the cloud and vice versa will occur. The medium through which the process passes is air, and an explosion occurs when electrons penetrate the air insulation threshold.
Lightning will indeed occur during the rainy season. Why? Because at this time the air contains more water. So that the insulation power goes down, and more current flows. There are two types of clouds, namely those that are negatively charged and positively charged, so lightning can also occur between clouds that have different charges.
3. Title: Lunar Eclipse
One of the beautiful natural phenomena that many people look forward to is the lunar eclipse. Because its appearance is very rare, when a lunar eclipse is about to occur, many people are looking forward to it.
This beautiful view when a lunar eclipse is appearing is what makes some people like it. In fact, it is sunnah for Muslims to carry out the eclipse prayer when it appears.
This eclipse occurs when part or all of the moon’s cross section is covered by the shadow from the earth. This happens when the earth is in a position halfway between the moon and the sun. Where all three are in a straight line.
Therefore, the sun’s rays cannot be received directly by the moon because it is blocked by the earth. Then came the lunar eclipse.
Basically, when an eclipse occurs, the moon can still be seen. This happens because there is still sunlight deflected by the atmosphere towards the moon. Then most of the emitted spectrum is red. That’s why the moon is dark during an eclipse. The color can be brown, red, or orange.
A lunar eclipse will be seen when the moon’s cross section is covered by the earth’s shadow, either partially or completely. Especially when the earth is right between the sun and the moon. The sun’s light that cannot reach the moon makes the moon’s section exposed to the shadow from the earth, so that the phenomenon of a lunar eclipse appears.
4. Title: Landslide
Landslide is a natural phenomenon or event that often occurs in highland areas. Landslide also called ground movement is a geological event that occurs due to ground movement, such as the fall of rocks or large lumps of soil. Landslides occur in various types and types of soil.
In general, there are two factors that cause landslides, namely driving factors and triggering factors. The factors that affect the condition of the material are called driving factors, while the factors that make the material move are called trigger factors.
The main cause of landslides is actually gravity that affects steep slopes. But of course, there are other factors that come into play, such as erosion, soil and rock slopes that are weak due to saturation due to heavy rains, also due to volcanoes, which cause deposits of dust, heavy rains, and flows of dust.
But like other phenomena, of course there are landslides that can also be prevented. For people who are in areas prone to landslides, there are several ways to prevent landslides from occurring.
This can be done by not making ponds or rice fields on the slopes, then not building dwellings around the cliffs, letting the trees around the slopes continue to grow (not being cut down), not building buildings around rivers, and also not cutting the cliffs perpendicularly. .
Those are the characteristics and examples of explanatory text that can be studied. If you want to learn more about explanatory text, check out related books at sinaumedia.com . As #FriendsWithoutLimits, sinaumedia always provides the best products for Sinaumed’s.
Author: Siti Badriyah
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